Kentucky Wildcats at Tennessee Volunteers: a look at the stats

Yeah, so there is only one Kentucky. And yeah, the Tennessee Volunteers have a shot to go up 4-3 on the Wildcats in the Bruce Pearl era. And yes, Kentucky's not ranked, and they've lost four games already including their opener to the Virginia Military Keydets (not a spelling error!).

But yeeeow, look at those numbers.

KEY STATS COMPARISON
Category	Rank	Actual	Rank	Actual
Scoring Offense	6	84.3	25	79.8
Scoring Defense	298	75.1	108	64.8
Scoring Margin	68	9.1	20	15.0
Field-Goal Percentage	97	45.5	6	50.5
Field-Goal Percentage Defense	217	43.9	11	36.9
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game	113	6.9	214	5.8
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage	244	30.8	179	33.7
Three Pt FG Defense	232	0.352	159	0.337
Free-Throw Percentage	143	69.4	4	78.7
Rebound Margin	12	8.6	23	7.3
Assists Per Game	16	17.6	11	17.9
Assist Turnover Ratio	46	1.17	133	0.99
Blocked Shots Per Game	91	4.0	2	7.5
Steals Per Game	132	7.2	164	6.9
Turnovers Per Game	218	15.0	318	18.1
Turnover Margin	146	0.6	276	-2.1
Personal Fouls Per Game	298	21.1	126	18.0

Second in the nation in blocked shots. Fourth in the nation in free throw percentage. Sixth in field goal percentage. Eleventh in field goal percentage defense and assists. Twentieth in scoring margin. This is still Kentucky.

And all of that against Tennessee's scoring defense, which ranks . . . 298th. The player most likely to have a career game against the Vols tonight? Jodie Meeks, who has inherited top 35 national rankings in points per game, free throw percentage, three pointers per game, and three point percentage. The player most likely to give Wayne Chism and Brian Williams fits? Patrick Patterson, who has alliterated his way to first in the nation in field goal percentage and top 50 rankings in points, rebounds, and blocks per game.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Category	Player	Rank	Actual	Player	Rank	Actual
Points PG	Tyler Smith	87	17.7	Jodie Meeks Patrick Patterson	5 47	24.2 18.9
FG%				Patrick Patterson	1	70.9
3-Point FG PG				Jodie Meeks	10	3.6
3-Point FG%				Jodie Meeks	34	41.9
FT %				Jodie Meeks	8	90.2
Rebounds PG	Wayne Chism	35	9.1	Patrick Patterson	32	9.3
Assists PG
Blocks PG				Perry Stevenson Patrick Patterson	24 49	2.4 2.1
Steals PG
Assist-TO Ratio	Bobby Maze	51	2.2

Kentucky has won four of its last six road games against Tennessee, and our team is currently struggling defensively. Still, if their team is anything like their fans, the Wildcats might be a bit overconfident. And doesn't Wheezy tend to have huge games when he's pitted against a star player? And wouldn't pythags within .003 of each other generally suggest sortaprollymaybe a close game?

It's an Orange Jacket game, y'all. I hope Pearl takes it off at just the right time.